Lighting up the starry night
by RainingSunshineEverywhere
Summary: A one-shot I wrote for fun that takes place a month after the Great Food Incident. Has nothing to do with my other CWACOM fanfics. The rating is somewhere between K  and T.


**A/N: I was just thinking about writing this one-shot for fun. Don't worry there is no dark stuff, no death, no blood, etc. But there are fireworks! I'm just taking a break from my other fanfics for a day. This one-shot just lightens things up a bit. The idea just popped into my mind and I couldn't leave the idea lying around =)**

It was a busy day in ChewandSwallow. It had been exactly a month after the Great Food Incident. The whole town was celebrating that the food had been finally cleared and everything was finally good. Things were almost perfect now.

Flint and Sam had gotten closer to each other. Everyone constantly saw them together wherever they went. People started joking that they'll get married soon, and instead of telling them to shut up, Flint would just glance at Sam mischievously.

"Not yet, Flint. Just wait." She'd laugh.

But other than that other people changed too. When Brent had the top half of his chicken suit eaten, he finally came to his senses that he needed to find some normal clothes. Plus he became much nicer to Flint. Brent taught Flint how to skateboard and Flint taught Brent how to create turbo-rockets for the skateboard.

The town was also free for a day. As in 'we got no leader!' free. The Mayor was off sinking in the ocean and everyone thought it served him right. But eventually, Earl got into his police motor boat and swam it out to where the Mayor was sinking. He returned to the town with him and the Mayor was immediately hand-cuffed, thrown into the ChewandSwallow prison and put on a sardine diet. Of course the Mayor hated sardines, so he was starving himself in his cell. But no one cared.

Earl took the job as the part-time Mayor of the town, until a stable one was elected in a few days. But he still kept to his police duties, even with the job.

With all this happening, today the town was celebrating. Later that evening they had planned fireworks and a huge party. And Flint was put in charge of the fireworks along with Brent. Sam decided to help another group with the food. She decided to take Steve along.

"Steve, we are baking a cake for the party tonight." Sam told the monkey as they stood in City Hall's own kitchen. She and Steve were put on cake duty.

The kitchen was huge, all was steel and sleek. There wasn't a single stain anywhere, not even a scratch. Sam was worried that with Steve working with her, the kitchen would be the opposite of what it was now.

"Help! Help!" Steve cried excitedly and tapped a wooden spoon on the counter.

"Yes Steve, you'll help. Just wait a bit." Sam replied and began to grab the ingredients out of the cupboards and refrigerator.

Steve watched Sam as she began to throw in ingredients into the bowl and stir. But when she saw Steve watching her with wide eyes, she gave in and let him stir. Except when she handed him the wooden spoon, he shook his furry head.

Instead he pointed at the electric mixer. Biting her lip, Sam didn't think this was such a good idea. This was Steve she was dealing with. Hyper, unpredictable Steve. But she didn't want to get on Steve's bad side either and slowly plugged in the electric mixer.

"Steve, hold the bowl when you turn it on!" Sam warned the monkey.

She handed him the mixer and made sure he was holding the bowl. Then she stepped back and smiled. Steve concentrated on the mixture in the bowl and gripped the bowl tightly. His eyes traveled to the power button. When he turned on the button, everything was going fine—for now.

A huge grin spread on the monkey's face as he stirred with the mixture. Sam relaxed from where she stood and folded her arms over her chest. Maybe Steve was much careful than she thought.

Suddenly, Steve twisted the mixer's dial to full power and the mixer went crazy in the bowl. Yelping, Steve could no longer hold the bowl steady. He could no longer control the mixer either. The bowl was now out of his reach and the mixer was making batter fly all over the place. The mixer slipped through Steve's hands, and flew through the air.

White batter was landing all over the kitchen. The bowl had been knocked into the air and before it landed on the ground, half of it splattered on the walls and on Sam. Gasping, Sam got up to grab the mixer; which was buzzing on the countertop. But she slipped on a puddle of batter and went skidding across the floor. She landed with a thud.

"Steve! Get the mixer!" she shouted. Steve jumped up and landed on the mixer. He pressed the off button and the whole room became quiet.

"Help!" Steve hopped off the counter and landed next to Sam.

"Yes, you did help." Sam laughed and wiped some batter off her forehead and ate it. Steve beamed.

xxx

"Which ones should we get, Flint?" Brent asked.

They stood in a general store looking down the aisle that had candles and fireworks. Flint grabbed a large red rocket and read the label. It said to run back 10 meters, when lighting up. He grabbed a small green one and realized this was just one of those rockets, you'd launch as a kid. Smiling to himself, he thought about getting it.

"Anything, I guess. They said we need plenty of color." Flint picked up one that was nearly as long as he was. When he read the label, he almost jumped back. It said not to shake it too much, or drop it; otherwise it might set off sparks.

"Whoa! That's a big one!" Brent came to stand next to Flint.

"Yeah, but it'll probably blow up half the town." Flint joked. He turned the big rocket over to see another label on that side.

It said that the rocket contained a self-lighter that only ignited the rocket when shaken. A burner would turn on if shaken in the right way and then the rocket would go off. Carefully, Flint placed the rocket back on the shelf and he and Brent continued looking for rockets to light tonight. But Brent took the big rocket that Flint had just held a few seconds ago. He knew exactly when to light this. And when of course. There was a perfect time tonight that would make the night even more entertaining that it already would be. Grinning, he slipped the rocket under his shirt, but it was sticking out. So he just held it behind his back.

Tonight he'll let it sparkle.

xxx

The night was clear. The sky was like a giant navy blue blanket and the stars looked like someone took a jar of glitter and spilled it all over the blanket. The moon was full and gave a lot of natural light down to the people of ChewandSwallow. The streetlights on the street had been dimmed, so that the moonlight gave more light.

The people were all bringing lawn chairs, blankets as they all positioned themselves at the south side of Main Street, which was closer to the docks. Sam, Brent, Flint and Steve all sat together. Brent sat in a lawn chair with Steve sitting in one next to him. Flint and Sam sat on a thick picnic blanket on the ground. Sam sat in Flint's lap and he had his arms around her. Both were smiling as they waited for the night to begin. There was to be food right after all the fireworks were set off. Brent told Flint that he wanted to set them off all by themselves.

"Beautiful night isn't it?" Flint kissed the top of Sam's head as they sat on their blanket, enjoying the night sky before it got blasted with color.

"Yes." She smiled and leaned her head back onto Flint's shoulder. Smiling back, Flint wrapped his arms tighter around her and when she turned to glance at him, he kissed her lightly.

Blushing, she turned back and they watched as Earl walked through the crowd and finally came to stand on a small platform with a microphone in his hand. He cleared his throat. The whole town slowly turned to look at him.

"It has been probably the hardest month for us all. But our town is finally clean and we have tonight to celebrate. We had a small committee prepare the food, a committee to get Main Street ready and the fireworks team. Tonight I just want everyone to enjoy themselves. But we do have someone who I let come tonight." Earl replied and turned around to look behind him.

Everyone either stood up or just craned their necks to see who it was. Brent seemed to know who it was, because he carefully pulled out the big rocket and held it in his hand. Flint saw it and his eyes widened. He squeezed Sam's hand tighter.

A short figure walked onto the platform. He wore tattered black and white striped shirt and pants. His hands were hand-cuffed and a chain had been tied to the handcuffs. Joe Towne stood holding the chain like it was a leash. His hair was messy and his skin was pale. But his eyes bore right into the crowd. It was Mayor Shelbourne. Slowly, he stepped off the platform and Joe followed. He came to stand next to the platform and turned his head to look at Earl.

"Well! I just let him come for tonight instead of sitting around in that jail cell. But that doesn't matter. Brent, can you get the fireworks ready?" Earl smiled and Brent got up holding the big rocket in his hands.

Slowly he came over to the small spot in the middle of Main Street, where all the fireworks that he and Flint bought stood in position. He steadied the big rocket and pointed it right at Mayor Shelbourne with a mischievous smile on his face. After buying the big rocket, he had opened it up and snapped something inside it so that the rocket flew forward instead of upward. Plus he had super-glued a strong magnet he found while snooping around in Flint's junk pile in his backyard. The magnet was _supposed_ to fly straight at Mayor Shelbourne's handcuffs, and if the handcuffs weren't magnetic then the rocket would aim for the chain around the handcuffs. If that didn't work, the rocket would probably attack the metal sides of the lawn chairs.

When Earl signaled for Brent to set them off, Brent smiled and decided he'd set the big one after all the rest. He came over to each and lit each cord with a lighter. The fireworks let out a sizzling noise and suddenly each exploded into the starry night sky.

The different colors burst in the sky and each were like a giant flower that was spreading it's petals out, before ripping apart and the sparks showered all around. They all dimmed before they could hit the ground. Some of the rockets took longer to explode and stayed longer in the sky. But Flint and Brent had bought a lot, so the moment some would fade, more would crack across the sky.

Flint had decided to kiss Sam just as the very first firework went off. She kissed him back and they both let it hold for a few seconds longer than usual. When they both broke away, Sam leaned her head happily against Flint's shoulder and he let his head rest on her head. They watched the rest of the fireworks go off.

The cheers that erupted around were almost as loud as the fireworks that crackled. Everyone was happy that their town was back to normal and that now they would be just like every other town in the world. No more sardines and no more gloominess spreading over the town like a storm cloud.

"Time to let the big one free. This is for what Shelbourne did to Flint and me and of course to everyone in this town. And to everyone else out there who knew Shelbourne. Let's let this baby fly." Brent grinned and getting up, he kicked the rocket as hard as he could.

Then he quickly ran over to where Flint and Sam now stood. Sam and Flint were standing with their hands around each other. Both never looked happier.

"Guys. Watch the big rocket. This is gonna be good." Brent told them.

The big rocket began to shake really hard from where it was tied to the firework stand. Suddenly it broke away from the ropes and just as Brent hoped it soared right at the closest magnetic metal object. This was the chain around Shelbourne's hands.

When Shelbourne saw the rocket coming at him, he pulled the chain out of Joe's hands and stood there like a frozen rabbit as the rocket was flying at him. Then he screamed at the top of his lungs and began to run as fast as his short legs carried him all the way down Main Street.

Everyone watching the fireworks turned to glance at the sight and even louder cheering exploded from the crowd. Most of these cheers were coming from a group of teens who were whistling and yelling for Shelbourne to run faster.

"RUNAWAY CRIMINAL!" Joe shouted and grabbed the gun from Earl's belt and raced after Shelbourne.

"THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!" Brent called as he came to stand next to the teens.

Even the Ratbirds had been laughing that night. They didn't really care about the fireworks. Shelbourne running from a rocket was all the entertainment they needed.


End file.
